Professor Ed Telfeyan, Kevin Quade, Ashley Porter and Chris Braniff.

Moot Team Wins Houston Writing Awards

Pacific McGeorge took home some hardware from the University of Houston Law Center Moot Court National Championship, which was held Jan. 25-28, 2012, and won by South Texas College of the Law.

Kevin Quade, '12, and Ashley Porter, '12, teamed up with designated brief writer Chris Braniff, '12, to win the Best Respondent's Brief award and capture a trophy for Second Best Brief in the invitation-only tournament. Porter and Quade were also recognized for their oral advocacy.

The runner-up in the championship round was St. Louis University Law School. The semi-finalists were Florida Coastal School of Law and Stetson University College of Law. A University of Florida Levin College of Law student captured the Best Speaker trophy. Pacific McGeorge received an invitation to the event, which is co-sponsored by Andrews Kirth LLP, by virtue of its ninth-place finish in the 2010-11 national rankings.

"It was a tremendous tournament," said Jim Lawrence, director of the UH Law Center's Blakely Advocacy Institute and the law professor who devised the point system used to determine the "best of the best" moot court programs in the country. "The level of competition was incredibly fierce."

This year's problem involved criminal charges of negligence and jury tampering stemming from an industrial accident in which toxic chemicals were spilled into a river in violation of the Clean Water Act. The tournament was held at the Bob Casey Federal Courthouse with federal judges, state judges, and member of the local bar hearing arguments.

Professor Ed Telfeyan, '75, the director of Pacific McGeorge's Moot Court Program, coached the team with attorney Mark Gallagher, '75, a principal in the Folsom firm of Cable Gallagher who led McGeorge to a third-place finish in the ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition in 1995.